A-G: Catalan officials should be tried for rebellion

MADRID: Spain's Attorney-General said yesterday that top Catalan officials should be prosecuted for rebellion after the region's parliament declared independence from Spain last week.

Mr Jose Manuel Maza said in a statement that the leaders, dismissed by the Madrid government on Friday, are suspected of "sedition, embezzlement of funds and abuse of authority".

A court now has to decide whether to accept the charges.

The crime of rebellion is punishable in Spain by up to 30 years in prison. Catalonia's now-dismissed regional president Carles Puigdemont said the result of the independence referendum gave the region a mandate to declare independence.

Madrid and the Spanish courts said the referendum was illegal and that an unilateral independence declaration would violate the constitution.

Mr Maza said in a ruling that the filing targeted "the principal political leaders of the Catalonia government".

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It alleged that the leaders "with their decisions and deeds over the past two years have caused an institutional crisis that led to the unilateral declaration of independence carried out on Oct 27 with total contempt for our constitution". - AFP